Twitter Group Messages are Reviving What Was Once Dead to Me

Twitter Group Messages are Reviving What Was Once Dead to Me

I will be the first to tell you how much I love working and playing on Twitter.  Twitter is a powerful social media network when it comes to reaching an international audience.  The problem with Twitter is that few take the time to dig deep and learn how to use it effectively.  Before I tell you exactly why Twitter Direct Messages WERE Dead to me, let me explain a bit more about what exactly Twitter Direct Messages are and how they were INTENDED to be used.

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Twitter Group Messages are Reviving What Was Once Dead to Me
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QUICK SMART SOCIAL MEDIA TIP 

Here is your smart social media tip for today:  Of course it is all about Twitter on today’s show.  The absolute best way to monitor direct messages are by using 3rd party resource such as TweetDeck.  TweetDeck shows you the activity on your Twitter profile in real-time.  You can set up a dedicated column that only contains messages sent directly to you. There you can respond and clear the messages once they have been reviewed.  This is a great way to stay focus and leave no leaf unturned when it comes to being responsive on your Twitter Business profile.
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Twitter Group Messages are Reviving What Was Once Dead to Me

I’ll be the first to tell you how much I love working and playing on Twitter.  Twitter is a powerful social media network when it comes to reaching an international audience.  The problem with Twitter is that few take the time to dig deep and learn how to use it effectively.  Well I have and I know as an entrepreneur that I would be missing out on a huge marketing opportunity for my business to reach vast audiences if I did not incorporate Twitter into my strategy.
Yes Twitter is fun to chat with your friends, family and colleagues.
Yes Twitter makes it super easy to send short and sweet messages that get equally quick and short responses back.
Yes there is a way to communicate in an expanded manner.  That being sending messages using Twitter’s Direct Messaging feature.
Have I advocated the use of direct messages in the past.  NO!
Before I tell you exactly why Twitter Direct Messages WERE Dead to me, let me explain a bit more about what exactly Twitter Direct Messages are and how they were INTENDED to be used.
Here’s Twitter’s definition of Direct Messages:
“Direct Messages are private messages sent from one Twitter user to other Twitter users. You can use Direct Messages for one-on-one private conversations.  The only rules are that you can only send Direct Messages to users who follow you and you can receive Messages from any user that you follow.”
That sounds awesome, doesn’t it?  Not really when you receive hundreds of irrelevant spam A DAY like we at Smart Office Help do.  I digress because there’s more to this story.  I recently received an update from Twitter.  Which is great!  I signed up for Twitter’s business newsletter so I could be in the know.  If you too would like to be “in the know” you should also sign up for updates for the Twitter Business newsletter also.  This particular update was to announce the fact that Twitter has now made “Group Direct Messaging” available to all.

This is the email I received.

My first thought was “Oh No, say it ain’t so”.  I thought to myself, what the h-e-double hockey sticks were they thinking.  I really didn’t know how I felt about the news.  Yes I have been prone to get a bit emotional over my favorite social media network.  It’s true.
Here is Twitter’s definition of Group Messages:
“Direct Messages are private messages sent from one Twitter user to other Twitter users. You can use Direct Messages  between groups of users.  There are a few more rules for group messages which are:

• You can only invite users who follow you to a group.
• Other users participating in the conversation can invite their followers (even if they aren’t followed by everyone involved in the group Message).
• Users who have been blocked by anyone participating in the group Message can’t be invited to join.
• You can start and participate in group Messages when using twitter.com, Twitter for iPhone or Twitter for Android apps, and TweetDeck.”

I don’t know how I feel about the whole group messaging feature.  Well that was my line of thinking when I took a quick glance at the email.  You know how us BUSY entrepreneurs do it, we may or may not open an email.  If we do, we take a quick look at the bullet points and keep it moving.
I decided to take a closer look and I’m glad I did.  My negative opinion began to be swayed as I explored the email, clicked on the links to get more information and watch the informative video.   I found that there was more that meets the eye.

Here is the additional information & benefits of using Twitter Group Messaging that I uncovered:

• There is a limit to the number of followers you can actually send a Group Message to.  20 is the magic number.
• Direct messages support text, photos, links, emoji (we love emoji’s) and Tweets

OK I’m starting to come around at this point, but there’s more.

• They are private which means only the parties involved in the specific Group message will see that message.
• You can share Tweets with the invitees of the Group message.  I can see the usefulness in this.
• People that are included in the Group Message will be notified that they are include.

This last one is the biggie for me; you can now have private conversations that are equivalent to online, real-time chats.  This is similar to Google Chat.
Ok that is HUGE.  Twitter is changing the game when it comes to social media usage for personal and business usages.  Yes this is a game changer.
Here is the short demonstration video that Twitter released on January 27,2015:
Twitter Help Topic on the Direct Messaging Feature
I haven’t used this yet, but I can definitely see the added value of this new feature.  I knew there was a reason that I loved Twitter.  The looming question now is “Are Twitter Direct Messages still dead to me?” Give it a couple of months and I’ll let you know.

Have you tried the Twitter Group Messages yet?

Let us know you thoughts in the comments below.